>> josh gets all the attention. > that's all in for this evening, the rachel has dow show starts now, with melissa harris-perry. >> thanks to joining us this hour. this is chris hughes, he was one of the founders of face back, going back to the dorm room days of harvard. in 2008 he ran the online part of barack obama's presidential campaign. he created the digital strategy that helped get president obama elected. last year he got married, he married sean eldridge in new york state. now, mr. hughes' new husband is running for congress as a democrat. the two of them are a democratic power couple from bright blue new york by way the bright blue

california by way of harvard. to go along with his many, many millions and his liberal politics, mr. hughes last year bought a liberal magazine, the new republic, where you can find headlines like, new data that shows why the next republican nominee is screwed, and obstructing obama isn't in house republican's self-interest. john mccain, undecided 2016 voter, an exclusive interview. republican senator john mccain sitting down for an interview with the lefty smart kid of the new republic would be news in and of itself. check out what he says. the magazine asked him about the painful budget cuts forced by republicans in congress. the ones that were never supposed to happen. john mccain voted for those cuts which were supposed to scare congress into reaching an agreement, so they would never actually take place. were you surprised that republicans allowed sques drags? senator mccain, it is the worst vote i have cast in many years. senator mccain talking to a

liberal magazine, openly regretting his vote, i think for good reason. because today we got a report on the american economy, and the good news is that the economy is growing, it's just not growing very fast. part of why this bar is so short is the budget cuts john mccain supported then and regrets now. without those cuts, the american economy would look more like this, with more jobs and more money to go around. senator john mccain's expression of remorse for that is real news. but it is not even the biggest news right now about john mccain. throughout the obama presidency, john mccain has dogged the white house, blocking the president's domestic agenda, at one point rejecting immigration reform, though he himself had been a champion of the idea. senator mccain reserved a special level of disdain for the president's foreign policy. >> we need to take gadhafi out. we could have ended this conflict a lot earlier if we used the full weight of the u.s. power, instead of leading from behind.

>> we won the war and are losing piece, thanks to the president's commitment to get completely out on israel, relations have never been worse. >> horrible things are happening in syria. this administration has a ffectless foreign policy which abandons american leadership. the president of the united states will not set deadlines. the red line is that the president of the united states has written, was apparently written in disappearing ink. >> it's always time to arm the rebels and sing another round of bomb, bomb iran. and then ask, where is president obama anyway? the president got a new foreign policy headache this month in egypt when the ouster of the elected president who replaced hosni mubarak, since then, egyptian security forces have twice opened fire on supporters killing scores of citizens each time. egypt is kind of a disaster. and president obama would seriously like to find some way

of fixing it. yesterday we learned that he is sending a couple senators to egypt, they're going to go to try to convince the egyptian military to let a new round of elections take place, and their names are john mccain and lindsay graham. those two are traveling to egypt at the request of president obama. the same senator mccain and for that matter, senator graham who have spent the last several years calling the president soft on foreign policy. and a threat to world order. i mean, is this for real? like is this for real at all? john mccain is going to egypt on behalf of the president who's foreign policy he called fectless and written in can disappearing ink. besides the whiplash you may get from just hearing this news, it's real and it may matter for our politics beyond the question of egypt. if it's true that the log jam in congress has been hurting the country, if it's true as the data suggests that refusal by congress to do anything is dragging down the economy. and making it impossible for the

nation to address basic problems, then two republican senators wading into egypt on behalf of a democratic president might signal some sort of actual change in that republicans who have played a specialty of refusing to govern are suddenly choosing to take part in government. and it might be that the log jam in washington is breaking. i mean, just a little, with republican leaders no longer united in saying, no. sometimes lately it's seemed as though the republican party is just having a breakup. like when new jersey governor chris christie called out senator rand paul for being so libertarian, even though his state brings home loads of federal dollars, and then rand paul called chris christie the king of bacon which considering might be kind of a remark. and then rand paul goes on fox and invites chris christie for a beer at the pub around the corner. these two are giving a preview of the next presidential primary. in addition to bacon and beer,

it seems to involve actual debate over the last couple weeks, the senate took a vote on immigration reform and passed the bill with republican support. just tonight the senate confirmed the director for alcohol tobacco and firearms, atf for the first time in seven years. if this keeps up, who knows, the senate could start having up or down votes on all sorts of stuff. heck, john mccain says he regrets his vote on those budget cuts that are hurting the economy, and double heck, he's going to egypt at the president's request. the obama administration reportedly thinks he is the senator they can work with now. to try to get compromise going again. now, if you're feeling a little skeptical at home. don't let me talk you out of it. it is a wonder of wonders that stuff is moving in any part of this congress after so little has been done there for so long. did you ever think after all of this that john mccain would

become a leading light of the willing to govern coalition? and do you buy it now? do you? joining us now, is barney frank, former democratic congressman from the great commonwealth of massachusetts. thanks for being here, congressman. >> thank you. >> so should i be leading with my skeptical foot here, or is this a real coalition? >> no, it's not a real coalition, i've actually been amused listening to john mccain saying the president's foreign policy was feckless. we have john kerry really making some major progress in the middle east, and i've been trying to think now, what the opposite of feckless is, i don't know if it's feckful or fecky, i think they're showing it here in terms of john doing some great

things in the middle east. in the first place, let's talk about the great inconsistency of mccain and graham. they're for cutting the deficit, against raising taxes, and they want to spend tens of billions of dollars more on the military. that's just crazy. secondly, and it is maybe even first. i think the president is trying to call their 3w4ru6 by sending them to egypt and saying, okay, smart guys, you tell me what you think we should do. there is this assumption that it's america's responsibility to make things better within egypt, within syria, i wish we could. i wish we could bring democracy together. it's a great mistake to think we have the power to do it, and instead we waste enormous amounts of money even trying. and also, there was movement on one issue, as rachel noted. immigration and that's because john mccain can count. every reasonable republican understands if they don't move on immigration, it's a political disaster. unfortunately, reasonable republicans are not anywhere

near a majority in the house. >> let me ask you about that, it does feel to me like, i love that part of what the president is doing here is saying, you got an answer to this, go ahead and try. it also seems that the president's real challenge has been with these house republicans who won't even get in line with their own party leadership. does working with an elder like senator mccain make any difference in that kind of environment? >> unfortunately, probably not. by the way, we did get the confirmation tonight. and i think that's important. although, there's one set of confirmations that's quite critical. the circuit court of appeals for the district of columbia, is the place where appeals from all regulations go, and there was a republican majority in that court, obama has been trying to get three people nominated which would make it more even. the republicans have been filibustering those nominations, that's one of the reasons we have not been able to get the financial reform bill fully implemented.

the commodities commission. some of these conservative judges said, oh, no, they con the have really meant that. what happened was, harry reid to his credit said, if you don't start confirming people, i'm going to complaining the rules. i gladly did that, but it didn't go far enough. mitch mcconnell said, if you change the rules, the senate will never be the same. i think most people think that would be a great idea. >> this point is an important one about these judges, that court -- part of the thing that senator mccain said in his conversation with the new republic, is that the president is now thinking about his legacy and that's appropriate. the court is really where the president leaves his legacy, right? that's why there's a republican majority on those courts now, it's the legacy from previous presidents. in other words, is the real bluff to call here for the senators about whether or not they're going to get on board with those judicial nominations? >> absolutely. you know, they've said, well, the president has a right to appoint the people in his cabinet. it goes beyond that, the constitution says the senate

shall advise and consent. that doesn't mean they have to say yes, it does mean they have to say something, what they've done for example with the consumer bureau, they don't like the agencies, they don't have the votes to repeal it, they don't have the votes to undue it, they try to block it by not appointing somebody 37 with those judges, you're right, and you know this, it's the second most important court in the country. any appeal from the securities and exchange commission. any appeal about the volcker rule goes to that court, it's an unbalanced conservative court, as you pointed out, the president hadn't been as careful at who he appointed from our stand point as reagan, bush and bush were. by blocking his ability to appoint three judges, they are locking in a conservative majority which works to try to frustrate our ability to get financial reform. >> let me ask one last quick question. even if we can't expect sort of a long term coalition between the president and senator mccain, is there one issue they can agree on, and specifically is it closing gitmo, is this a coalition that could hold to get

that presidential goal taken care of? >> i would hope so. i would hope so, on two levels, if they can't get the votes through it, the house of representatives isn't really, it's full of people who don't believe in governance, they want to make things worse. we would have been doing better than normal in an economic recovery now, or at least as good as normal if we hadn't been 230rsing cuts. we're taking away environmental inspectors. health inspectors, firefighters. we've gained about 7 million private sector jobs, we lost a million and a half public sector jobs. they say the private sector is being crushed by the public sector. it's the reverse. i hope mccain would say to the president, look, if we can't get the votes through that house to close it, you use the fullest of your executive authority to get people out of there, and i will support you against the criticism.

i think this is a real test of whether or not john mccain wants to break with the republicans. and maybe it's time for john to think about his legacy. he doesn't appear to ever want to retire. >> maybe he doesn't have to worry about that. >> a living will. >> the always effeckful barney frank, former democratic congressman from massachusetts, thanks for being leer tonight. >> you're welcome. in marches toward equality are full of hurdles, folks. don't be discouraged, just be aware. news about marriage equality is next. that hurt! no, no, no, no. you can't go to school like this, c'mon. don't do it! no! (mom vo) you never know what life's gonna throw at you. if i gotta wear clothes, you gotta wear clothes. (mom vo) that's why i got a subaru. i just pulled up. he did what now? no he's never done that before! oh really? i might have some clothes in the car.

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a question for my senator, david witter, does it make sense to you that when our cities need help, the right solution is to withhold all help, unless, of course, there's a hurricane? i got it. what vitter is up to is next. with my friends, we'll do almost anything.

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it's time to update the mat, the right to marry map. same sex couples can get married in 11 states. in a few hours, that number jumps to 13. beginning tomorrow, gay people in minnesota and rhode island will be able to get married. in minnesota, the mayor of minneapolis will officiate the first gay weddings at midnight tonight. he will marry 42 couples between midnight and 6:00 a.m. you get the mayor himself. and another two dozen couples will be tieing the knot in the city council chambers. the governor of minnesota will head to st. paul, he's attending

a big freedom to marry rally at 10:30 tonight. and at that other great ming men institution, the mall of america, a wedding chapel will conduct its first same sex weddings. rhode island has been accepting preregistrations to obtain marriage licenses all week, people can pick them up starting at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow and get married right away. with rhode island being the last of the states in new england new england to institute marriage equality. the rush to the alter isn't expected to be a stampede. as of midnight tonight. gay marriage will be legal in 13 states. the surprising thing is just how unsurprising it is to see two more states expand rights to gay people. as far as we can tell, there have been no big anti-gay rallies in minnesota or rhode island, not even any grandstanding in congress on the issue.

that does not mean that the whole country is on the same path to marriage equality. take pennsylvania, for example, this show recently reported that in montgomery county, the guy in charge of issuing marriage licenses announced he would issue those licenses to gay people despite a 16-year-old gay marriage ban in his state. the state technically banned gay marriage, but he would give them marriage licenses anyway. as bruce haynes told rachel, he did it because it was the right thing to do. >> it's one thing to talk about this academically, you have two folks come in and ask for this recognition of their union. that puts it in an entirely different framework. it's not academic any more. it's not atherial. i've been speculating as to the number of people who are going to show up today. it was going to be zero or a line around the block. it turned out to be five. >> it was five couples the first day, and as of yesterday it's 34.

34 same sex couples have gotten their marriage licenses in montgomery county, pennsylvania. now, tom corbett is suing mr. haynes to stop issuing those licenses. the state's attorney general kathleen kane is refusing to defend the state's ban on gay marriage. the aclu is suing the state over it, she says she won't defend it. the governor's lawyer will be the one to protect marriage as a straight people's institution only. he's fighting at the local level and statewide. this is what governor corbett wants to be famous for, straights only marriage. dealing with your local laws, after a supreme court ruling related to those laws, i mean, it can be tough, just ask east baton rouge, louisiana, officials there still haven't adjusted to a supreme court ruling from 10 years ago. over the last two years, sheriff's deputies have arrested a dozen men for flirting with the intention to have sex. the men did not break any other

laws. seriously, no law broken. they were arrested and charged under a law that was found to be unconstitutional by the supreme court over a decade ago. the sheriff says he will expunge the men's records and waive the fee to do so. councilmembers said they would take a look at such a proposal. but there are already laws in place to protect gay people. you mean like the 10-year-old supreme court rule something that doesn't seem like enough here. it is truly exciting as of midnight there will be two more states that let gay people get married, we will still have a patchwork system in this country where rights are not dolled out equally, but then again, 13 states, that's all we had when we, the united states first became a country. can you do a lot with just 13 states. joining us now is pennsylvania state representative brian simms. representative simms asked to speak on the pennsylvania house floor about the defense of

marriage act the day the supreme court shut down the law. republican lawmakers shut down simms attempt to speak on the floor that day. it's good to have you here tonight. >> hi, melissa, thanks for having me on. >> talk to me about this boundary pushing going on in pennsylvania. so that folks at home can really understand it. what does it mean to have a governor saying don't do this, and someone else issuing the licenses? >> it took you a little while to do the intro, to explain all that's happening in pennsylvania. i think that's the best place to

start. pennsylvania doesn't have any statewide lgbt civil rights. we're talking about marriage equality right now. in pennsylvania, if i weren't a legislator i could be fired from my job for being gay or kicked out of my house for being gay. we're the only state in the entire northeast that doesn't recognize relationships for lgbt couples. we don't recognize basic civil rights for lgbt couples in this state. we have a governor who is openly hostile to lgbt quality. right now we're working in the assembly, the courts, but we're pushing pretty hard. there's a lot going on right now for equality in pennsylvania. >> i'm glad you took us to that broader movement. as we were looking at what's happening in my home state of louisiana, is the sense that we had this huge doma decision, the prop 8 decision, and you start feeling in the public discourse as though will is an inevitable move toward equality around lgbt issues. it's important to say hey, the struggle continues, we have to

keep fighting here. >> it's one of the struggles in all lgbt and all civil rights moechblts. you get to this point where you know that the end is within reach. that you're going to win, and you don't want to let up, it's the worst time to let up. now those people that are opposing lgbt civil rights have a lot less places to do battle. they're putting up a harder fight in places where they are. there's no reason the commonwealth shouldn't be recognizing even the basic level of civil rights for lgbt citizens, it's not. that's because there's been a conscious effort on the far right and in the religious far right to oppose these equality measures, luckily as you reported, every day we're seeing that equality is winning, which should nobody.

that's a part of our american values, our history if you will. >> if we're moving toward equality winning. on this larger agenda, certainly marriage equality being part of it, but issues of housing fairness, houses fairness, the ability to protect one's own children and custody, is governor corbett going to find himself in a difficult political position? not just historic, how history will remember him. but is this bad for his actual electoral opportunities? >> i think it's one more thing that's bad for this governor. we're hearing every day the national polls that say that our governor is the republican governor right now, least likely to win re-election. every challenger he has, every democratic challenger he has, has come out in support of lgbt civil rights. i think that we're just as likely to see the -- lgbt civil rights in pennsylvania signed into law by a different governor than we have. this is an entrenched governor for a lot of reasons, what he's done with education, what he's done with our budget, what he's not been able to do with our

budget. i add this to the list about i'm excited to see it's on the list. and i think that's what's so important here. talking about lgbt civil rights is not something we only do in the cities, or something we are only doing at the local level, we're having a statewide conversation about what equality means to pennsylvanians, and it means something different to this governor. right now when we poll in this state, their support for marriage equality, more than 50% support for marriage equality, and overwhelming support for nondiscrimination, this governor either chooses not to see that or doesn't sport it, i think it's the latter. >> pennsylvania state representative brian simms, thank you so much for joining us tonight. as we continue to talk about it on a larger level, i hope you'll get to talk about it on your house floor that you were unable to do previously. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you. and ahead, republicans attempt some linguistic gymnastics, but they don't stick the landing. what words don't mean is just ahead. engine humming.

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first wait till summer. then get the cars ready. now add the dodge part. ♪ ♪ the dodge summer clearance event. right now get 0% financing for up to 72 months and no payments for 90 days on all dodge vehicles. the news media continue to go bizonkers about anthony weiner and his embarrassing creepy, sexual issues. meanwhile, senator david vitter of louisiana is not only still senator of louisiana, despite his history of unlawful and shall we say infantile infidelity, he's also still

doing family fund-raisers including a thousand dollar a head get together at a justin bieber concert. apparently senator witter lacks not only memory and or a sense of irony, but also a google machine with regard to justin bieber and family. senator vitter is also fixin' to make sure that america's imperilled cities stay imperilled. not the vulnerable cities where he's from, of course. just the struggling cities where you might live. and that story is next. ♪

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could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know some owls aren't that wise? don't forget i'm having brunch with meghan tomorrow. who? meghan, my coworker. who? seriously? you've met her like three times. who? (sighs) geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know. welcome to the summer of scandal, folks, seems like every day we're getting more details, e-mails, texts, interviews and in some cases pictures we wish we had not seen. for the most part, i have been trying to avoid talking about anthony weiner, but it's difficult to avoid when an intern's tell all is on the cover of the tabloids. while we've been trying to avoid it, republicans are embracing the summer scandals as their newest strategy to diversify their party.

that is the game plan straight from the nrcc spoikz woman's mouth. the best tools we have as republicans to recruit women candidates in this cycle are three democrats named bob filner, eliot spitzer and anthony weiner. who would defend these cheating, harassing donkeys. but these dudes and their poor choices do not constitute a democratic party war on women. we are not looking for an honest date, we're looking for good lawmakers, and by good, i mean those who work to ensure women have equal rights and access, let's compare the party record, shall we? let's start with equal pay. remember when the lily ledbetter fair pay act of 2009 aimed at closing the gap between women's and men's wages. the vote in the house. it included only three

republicans in favor of equal pay. as a follow-up, they would require employers to show pay disparities. not so into equal pay? how about equal representation, remember when in 2010, they decided to launch the year of the gop woman? it was supposed to be a historic year for women, and it was. the 2010 midterm elections marked the first time where the number of women in congress declined. thank goodness the democratic ladies resulted in the mighty 113th, boasting the largest number of women ever to serve in the u.s. congress. no equal pay, no equal voice and don't look for reasonable protections either. it took months to finally convince the republican dominated congress to reauthorize the violence against women act. when it finally passed, more than 130 house republicans still voted against it, why? because conservative lawmakers balked at the addition of

expanded protections for undocumented immigrants and lgbt victims of sexual assault. maybe it's not a war on all women, just some women. the latest front is happening in the grocery aisle. republicans seek to slash tens of billions of food subsidies for women. and so-called food stamps are a woman's issue. women are twice as likely as men to have received stood stamps at some point in their lives. it is usually women who bear the burden of feeding america's 16 million poor children. even as republican policies make it harder for women to feed their children, the gop has been working overtime to ensure women have fewer choices about when to have them. these past few years have seen the highest number of abortion restrictions ever. even when women like texas state senator wendy davis demand to be heard on issues that affect their health.

republicans silence, ignore and even arrest them all while shuttering clinics that provide safe, medical procedures that women have a constitutional right to access. despite his campaign promises to the contrary and following the lead of his party earlier this week, pat mccrory signed into law a super restrictive anti-abortion bill that will likely close 15 out of 16 clinics in that state. to protest this assault on their rights, women gathered outside of his mansion in opposition. guess what he did? he came out to greet the protesters with cookies. see, there's no war here. i brought cookies. please listen, i agree, we don't want to have to deal with the texts, tweets, head locks or excuses of poorly behaved democratic men. but even those annoyances, as despicable as they are, are not going to make us forget the all out war that your party is

waging on women. and no, cookies don't help. the city of new york was on the brink of disaster when residents woke up to this headline. ford to city, drop dead. president gerald ford never said [ male announcer ] ah... retirement. sit back, relax, pull out the paper and what? another article that says investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401(k)s?! seriously? seriously. you don't believe it? search it. "401(k) hidden fees." then go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account. we have every type of retirement account. none of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments.

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the city of new york was on the brink of disaster when residents woke up to this headline. ford to city, drop dead. president gerald ford never said those exact words, but the sentiment behind them was very real. he had given a speech in which he said he would deny new york federal assistance to save the city from bankruptcy. even if he does not actually say drop dead, in reality, president ford was still telling new york to drop dead. even suggesting the second largest city in the world at the time should drop dead was a very unpopular thing to do. he travelled to an economic summit in europe, where the president of france and the chance lower of germany told him that a new york city bankruptcy would be seen by the rest of the

world as the same thing as the bankruptcy of america itself. the dollar would crash, the stock market would suffer and the entire thing was unthinkable. president ford reconsidered. he provided legislation that provided new york with loans that were paid back with interest. in 1970s new york, dug itself out of its financial mess. it did not go bankrupt. and times square over the coming decades went from looking like this to looking like this. an example of how even when they are in huge financial trouble, cities in this country can be saved. earlier this month, detroit became the latest and greatest american city to file for bankruptcy.

an $80 billion federal bailout saved the motor park of motor city. the auto industry from collapsing. right now in 2013 there will be no bailout for detroit itself. michigan governor rick snyder is not asking for one. and the white house is not offering one. it was really surprising republican members of the senate started trying to block a bailout of detroit. this thing that does not exist, no bailout, not only for detroit, but for any american city. no federal funding of any kind for any struggling city anywhere ever. unless they're hit by a natural disaster. because, you know, hurricanes, they have a tendency to hit the sponsor of another measure's home state with regular frequency. the first no bailout no money of any kind amendment did not passion, it was defeated on a close party line vote. its sponsor tweeted, if you weren't worried about the federal government bailing out municipalities like detroit now, you should be. be afraid of this thing that does not exist. so afraid that four other

republicans are proposing similar legislation to keep the federal government from helping american cities in trouble. you know who lives in america's cities, most of us. 80% with more of us moving to urban areas all the time. it's where the jobs are, because cities are the economic engines that help drive the prosperity of the entire country. there are other benefits to city living. i'm not just talking about the night life. cities are energy efficient with densely populated residential areas and things that make it easier to have a smaller carbon footprint. senator graham lives in a small city, with the population of only 8,000. and he represents a smallish state. the biggest city in the state isn't very big. there are 189 cities in the country bigger. the state of south carolina falls somewhere in the middle of all states. the senate itself has always had disproportionate representation by design. the number of house districts is determined by population. every state gets two senate seats no matter how many people live there. that was the founder's grand bargain. at no time has the senate been more disproportionate than it is right now, in 1790, virginia was

the biggest state, and delaware was the smallest. with virginia 13 times the size of delaware by population. giving a voter in delaware, 13 times the influence a virginia voter had in the senate. in 2010, those states were california and wyoming. california now 66 times as big as wyoming by population. so a resident of wyoming, has 66 times the influence that a californian does in the senate. 66 times. if it feels like 80% of the u.s. population, all those city dwellers, if it feels like they're not getting a fair shake right now in the senate. there's ample evidence to support that they are not. the slides of american cities by republicans in the american senate is all too real. joining us now, founder of change agent consortium. thank you for being leer tonight. >> thank you for having me. nobody in the obama

administration is offering to bail out detroit? no one is asking for one. should we be thinking about bailing out detroit? should americans care more about what happens in a big city? >> america should care about detroit. america should care about all of the cities across the country that if they are not struggling with pension liabilities and health care liabilities will be heading that way. we believe detroit is ground zero for this question of how the federal government should respond to cities that are in financial crisis. we must care about detroit. >> there's kind of a minors canary issue going on right here. all of the things that helped to hollow out detroit and make it difficult for detroit to have an economic base are the same things that are happening in other municipalities around the country. >> that's right.

i mean, detroit suffers before the foreclosure crisis decimated the ranks of the city of detroit. manufacturing in many ways have gone overseas, offshore. those jobs left the motor town, this is not about local bad government, this is not about the myth of mismanagement, this is about trade policy affecting detroit. this is about the foreclosure crisis. and so these are big issues that need federal intervention. and then if you add pension requirements and health care costs, the city of detroit needs a bailout, and maybe while the mayor's not asking for it, and while the white house has not responded wholeheartedly, they are citizens on the ground that are saying, we need a federal intervention in detroit now. >> i want to read you a little bit from mo brooks from alabama. he says that cities like detroit and stockton have knowingly and

recklessly squandered their resources, neither they nor their citizens have any moral standing to be bailed out by the american people. >> i wonder if the racial part of detroit is how people respond, look, new york was bailed out. the government came out and helped the city of new york. detroit deserves the same help that new york got many years ago. this is the city that put the world on wheels.

this is the arsenal of democracy. i mean, detroit is an american city. and who is more american than detroiters? and so we believe that the city of detroit is on the road to recovery, but that recovery is going to require federal intervention. >> pastor david bullock, of the change agency consortium. i know that federal government intervention makes a big difference when you are trying to recover. >> that is right, thank you so much. we have been hit by an economic hurricane, and so we need relief right now. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next. when does a person turn into a hero? we go all fan girl as she celebrates a milestone, don't miss it. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members

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on this date, 35 years ago, on july, time news was reporting

a test tube baby. this was in the pre-kardashian days, starring in the commercial. he tied a national league record with his 44-game hit streak. and nbc news, the parent company, did something that would forever change the course of history, in july, 1978, nbc news hired a local tv reporter and stuck her right on the air a few weeks later. something that was then called a general correspondent. >> when the final role was called, the voting rights passed the senate by 67-32, just one vote more than the two thirds needed. but it still must be approved by 38 legislators, and that fight could be difficult. andrea mitchell, nbc news, the capital. >> andrea mitchell was hired 35 years today was hired by nbc

news, and she has not taken a break since. if you are a regular viewer of this show, this network, you are no doubt familiar with her reporting at all corners of the globe. but that reporting got its start here 35 years ago when andrea mitchell became one of the very few women correspondents regularly covering capitol hill and the white house. a white house which was then occupied by democratic president jimmy carter. >> the president is planning to fight hard for his energy program. tomorrow, he will ask a group of freshmen congressmen for their help at a breakfast. >> andrea mitchell is now a chief foreign correspondent. but back then, she reported on a variety of items for nbc news. back then, the story for the country? was this one, the three-mile disaster in pennsylvania. even though andrea spent years reporting in nearby

philadelphia, even though she was on the energy beat for nbc news, when three-mile island happened andrea mitchell was kept back in d.c. she was not allowed to cover it because she was a woman. andrea sat down with rachel recently to discuss that particular experience. >> during the first week of the emergency, the bureau chief in washington was sending all of the men to three-mile island. and the only two women in the bureau had not been sent. and so finally we -- friday night came and we marched into his office. and we said why is it that we're the only two correspondents that have not been sent. and the bureau chief said because you're women of child bearing age, and we don't know how bad the radiation is. and i said has it occurred to you make men's balls are as vulnerable as women's ovaries? and this was back in the '70s when nobody talked that way. >> and his response was?

>> i got sent the next day. >> i mean, sure enough there was andrea mitchell reporting on three-mile island back then for nbc news, her work has taken her across the globe where she interviewed people like fidel castro, and where her interviews have gotten her in trouble with strongmen, who don't quite get the concept of strong women reporters. one of the stories was the convention, and the face of an unforeseen foe. >> i don't know if you can see me, because i have chosen the worst place to be on this floor. i'm right in the middle of the balloon drop. i am somewhere on the floor of the convention. surrounded by balloons. and confetti, but it certainly does mirror the excitement of this crowd.

>> andrea mitchell can't be stopped. anybody who knows or watches andrea mitchell knows that she is the single hardest working woman in television. her day often starts as it did yesterday, reporting live on "the today show" at the crack of dawn. by 1:00 p.m., she is reporting on the show, then hours later, reporting on nbc news with brian williams. as a result of that sheer grit and skill and determination, earlier this month, the national press foundation announced they would be giving andrea mitchell the highest award they give out. the state award. i speak for many when i say they have not chosen a better candidate. andrea mitchell, you are a treasure, a wonderful colleague, congratulations to andrea mitchell. we are quite sure it has only just begun. that does it for us. we'll see you tomorrow night. time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell, have a great night.

>> it is 10:00 p.m., and anthony weiner is still running for mayor. and we have a winner tonight, or i should say we have a surrender tonight in the fight between rand paul and chris christie. and president obama is not giving up on trying to get congress to do the right thing. >> president obama is heading to the hill a little bit later on today. >> president obama had pep rallies with house and senate democrats. he kept his message tight and focused. >> jobs, middle class. >> basically just another internal campaign rally. >> not everyone thinks that is a great idea. >> just a further vision of a widely planned pan. >> also, you see what ted cruz said? there are a lot of politicians who say they are opposed to obama care. >> stand for principles, stand up and be funded. don'